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[Theoclymenus]

Hey everyone, I love the idea of a succession game and wouldn't mind starting one. However, I need the help of all you lovely forum goers to work out a unique idea to play. A normal fortress in a mountain just wont cut it. I want to do something interesting that relative newbies could have fun with.

The thought that strikes me is a bunch of dwarves going to an island to try and colonise it (possibly a volcano). This island would be perfect if it were small enough to be at least mostly encompassed with a 4x4 (maybe 5x5) embark square. Maybe this could be made a bigger challenge by bringing along very little food.

I could throw around other ideas, post a reply if you have an idea.

EDIT:
Browsing the forum a little more, I spotted a thread on 'nano-fortresses', ones where the embark rectangle is a mere 1x1. This could be another interesting challenge.

Back to the island one, to make it more interesting I could start with nothing but enough units of booze to keep us going until a still is set up, a pick and an axe - nothing else.

[Run Comrades]

I would advise against bringing very little food.  That only really creates a challenge for the first few years of the fort.

Maybe not farming any plump helmets?  Or only farming above ground plants, once you get the seeds from outside or from trading,  that is.  That could be a little more challenging.

How difficult do you want this game to be?  Do you want goblin neighbors, or no?  I am running a fort now that has no goblin neighbors, I usually don't do that but I liked the area.  It was an island with a volcano, coincidentally!  For fun, I have a trade depot set up over the magma connected by one tile wide row of floor, that I deconstruct (from a safe distance) when they come to trade, dropping them in the magma pipe.  I mostly just build this giant castle out of green glass and regularly smash any tax collector and hammerers that come to my fort.

Then again, if you want goblin neighbors, there are endless challenges of creating awesome ways of killing them. 

You could have a goal of making a fort with no soldiers, only killing goblins with elaborate (but not automatic) traps (controlled by levers, or pressure plates).  It's pretty easy to train a bunch of champion military dwarves that can single-handedly decimate a few squads of goblins, that's why I say that.

Or: there's the old no migrant fort.  Maybe just let the first wave of migrants in to get a decent number, or not. Then build population by relying on only children born there.

Maybe you could also decide not to trade with your neighbors, be totally self-sufficient. 

There's always the goal of creating some ungodly monstrous construction as well.  Or maybe only above ground. Or using only wood. Or only glass.

Lots of things!  That's my five dollars worth.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

How about you use the embark anywhere utility and start with in the mountainhomes. That way we can build upon the pre-existing city and make it even better.

[Boksi]

Very interesting. Another idea occurs to me: dig out most of the top of the island. Turn it into a gathering of tall towers aboveground, and an underground maze as well.

I don't like the mountainhome idea, though. I'd prefer an island.

[Theoclymenus]

Starting with little or no food hasn't really ever been an issue for me because I tend to bring three dwarves for food: farmer/herbalist/brewer, farmer/herbalist/cook, fisherdwarf/fish cleaner. I reckon I can grab enough food from shrubs quickly enough to set up farms and the suchlike. Booze is the only thing that would concern me.

Personally, I would find playing against other races boring, especially as it causes framerate issues for anyone with an older computer (as in fighting a hundred goblins).

The embark anywhere thing has me intrigued but it brings to mind the godawful layout of the dwarvenhomes - hundreds of five by five rooms.

An island survival story or a nano fortress still strikes me as the most interesting (I am sure there are many succession games out there with goblins).

[Boksi]

I've got another idea too.

Make sure the fortress has a magma pipe.

Then build a giant, roughly spherical trough, and fill it with magma, and then water. Rinse and repeat as needed, then carve your fortress out of a natural obsidian cylinder.

I even made a little design for it:

[Theoclymenus]

Hmm, I am not saying that is a bad idea. But I did want this to be something relative newbies could play. I don't think that a nanofort or an island fort would be difficult (each take just a slight adjustment to the way that you play) but causing a massive construction based around solidifying magma sounds like a lot of bother.

[Boksi]

True. That might be solvable with liberal use of the new 'N'otes though. Like:

"This here is the lever to start the magma pumps. Before pulling, make sure there are no gaps in the wall. And remember to turn the pumps off as well, before the thing fills up."

You could build the pump system in a modular way so the newbies would understand them easily, too. And so on. Basically, if played right, it'd be a learning experience, instead of a catastrophic failure.

Anyway, we could just build a regular old tower instead, although it wouldn't be as fun, nor as awesome.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

If the fort idea is going with nanofort I will probably join.

[Theoclymenus]

Okay, so if I make a succession nanofort, what sort of location are people interested in? It's a little difficult to start on a mountain tile so it is probably a better idea to look for a forest somewhere (preferably one without enemies that are just going to eat our dwarves in the first ten minutes).

Or, I could combine it with the island challenge, start in a 2x1 area with one tile as ocean and see how many dwarves we can support in such a tiny place.

Any thoughts?

[Glacies]

Nano-fortress in a forest with a brook/river. Build a giant castle reaching into the heavens. Train a ton of marksdwarves using the near-limitless supply of bone bolts the constant rush of animals gives you.

[Skanky]

A nano-fortress is a good idea on several counts. It is unique, it isn't too difficult (provided the area has normal animals) and lets those with lower-end computers play, even when a fair few dwarves have immigrated. A forest / river combo should provide a fair amount of resources to play with without too much challenge.

[Theoclymenus]

I shall have a look at what I can generate - a forest without an aquifer would be perfect. If we were to have a river I would probably extend the embark rectangle to 1x2, don't want to run out of land because there is a river in the way...

[Haven]

Hmm... Plotline? The souls of gods-damned dwarves travel to rest at GraveHollows, tied to a tiny plot of land, preyed on by astral creatures, but always coming back (via migrants)?

A plot can alleviate the amusement issue somewhat, making it so you can rely in simple challenges. A field of burial shrines or a parthenon can also make a newbie-friendly architectural challenge...

Trying to find a fort to replace my ill-fated Ark venture...